Christmas Fayre

December Newsletter

Parent Council are organising a Christmas Fayre on Satur-

day 7th December 2013 from 10am to 12noon. Why don't

you bring your friends and family and come along to enjoy a

festive fun-packed Christmas Fayre? Lots of games and

stalls. Enjoy a cup of tea or coffee and some delicious home

baking whilst listening to live carol singing. Grab the chance

to win one of our amazing prizes in the Grand Raffle. Raffle

tickets available from the Parent Council or on the day.

Donations of gifts, bottles, toys, games and sweets to-

wards the tombola are gratefully received and can be

handed into the school office or to any PC member by

Monday 2nd December, if possible.

Calling all bakers.....the home baking stall is

always very popular. If you would like to donate

any homebaking, simply bring this to school on

the morning of the fayre.

We look forward to seeing you all there.

Staffing Updates... I am writing to inform you that Miss

Kay Chapman will be leaving the School

at the end of December to take up a

post in England. We wish Kay all the

best in her new job and thank her for

the many years of dedicated service to

our school. We are currently recruiting

for a new class teacher for the Primary

4-5 Class and hope to have this post

filled early next term. In the

meantime the class will be taught by

Mrs Lynn McCreery.

We are delighted to hear that Mrs

Rosy McCaw, our Primary 2-3 teacher

is expecting a baby. Mrs McCaw

intends to teach the class until mid

May. We will keep parents updated on

our arrangements to cover the class

after this date.

Together We Count The Together We Count focus this term

will be number recognition. We will be fo-

cusing on numbers, coins and time. Could

you support this at home by giving your

child lots of practice outside school?

Have you seen the To-

gether We Count logo any-

where around West Barns

or Dunbar? Why don't

you stop and help your

child find the significance

of counting or numbers in

that location?

This week your child will be given their

TWC lanyard to collect the rewards badges

for all their hard work.

West Barns Primary SchoolWest Barns Primary SchoolWest Barns Primary School

Christmas Nativity The Primary 1-3 Christmas Nativity will be

performed on Tuesday 10 December in the

school hall at 7pm. Please could Primary 1

parents ensure that their children are at

school by 6.30pm to change into costume.

Could parents ensure that Primary 2-3 pupils are at

school for 6.45pm. The P2-3 pupils may wear party

clothes and tinsel if they wish. Any queries please con-

tact the school office.

Christmas Assembly We will be holding a Christmas As-

sembly led by the Rev Lawrence

Twaddle in school on Friday 20th

December at 10.30am. This will be followed by refresh-

ments served by the Parent and Pupil Councils. All are

welcome to attend.

Primary 1 News We have been really busy in P1, learning about Sun, Moon and Stars. We have been trying hard to

answer our learning questions that we asked when planning our Sun, Moon and Stars topic. We have

found out why we have night and day, why the moon lights up, what shape the moon. We enjoyed

looking about pictures of the sun and stars. Can you help us to look for constellations at home?

Here we are learning about the phases of the moon using Oreo biscuits.

We are continuing to work on our phonics and enjoy forming our letters in lessons and when free

writing at the areas.

Lexi’s mum came in last week to share some of the stories that she had written. We enjoyed this

so much that they inspired us to write some of our own!

Please let our teachers know if you have a skill that you would like to share, we would be delighted

to have you.

Please can we bring our book bags to school each day as we may have new sounds to add.

Fun in Multicultural Week in Primary 4/5 During multicultural week we learnt about the Hindu fes-

tival of Divali. This fitted in well with our topic on light

as Divali is one of the many festivals of light. Aryan and

Simmi are Hindu so they were able to tell us how they

celebrate Divali at home. We listened to the story of

Rama and Sita and learnt how the people made diva

lamps to welcome them back home after they had de-

feated the evil forces. We made our own diva lamps out

of clay and decorated them with pretty patterns. We

dressed in Indian clothing and made finger puppets of

the main characters in the story.

We have also been finding out how shadow is formed. A

shadow forms when the light source is blocked. We made silhouettes of our heads. It is good fun

trying to work out which silhouette belongs to which pupil.

Last week we took part in a drama session on John Muir. This is part of the John Muir Citizenship

project. It was great fun and we learnt a lot about the life of the young John Muir. We will be

going rock pooling as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer!

Pupil Council organise Children in

Need event! Pupil Council took the responsibility of organising this year’s Children

in Need event. They decided that they would like to hold a bake sale

and a Pyjama Day. They wrote to parents, organised an assembly and

ran the bake sale on the day. We raised £177 for the appeal. Well

done Pupil Council

Planning for Spring in Nursery

The Nursery children have been planting hyacinth

and daffodil bulbs. Some bulbs have been planted

in compost and some are sitting with their roots in

water. Some bulbs are inside the Nursery and

some have been left outside in the cold! We have been talking about what

the bulbs need to help them grow, how we can look after them and which

ones we think will have shoots and roots first. We will be observing the

bulbs carefully and will take photos of any changes.

The Wonderful World of Story Writing in P2/3 This term, P2/3 chose to study Jeremy Strong’s science fiction novel

‘Krazy Cow Saves the World’. We were amazed at the amount of ad-

jectives and fantastic wow words we were able to think of when writ-

ing character descriptions on our favourite characters. Last week we

continued the story on in the same style as the author and then

wrote a letter to Jeremy Strong to ask if he could give us feedback

on our story writing. We have enjoyed building on drama skills from

our Arts Service drama workshop to help us with ideas for our mar-

velous stories!

Archaeological Experts in P2/3!

After the inspiration and excitement gained from our archaeological

dig we decided to invite head archaeologist, David Connelly, into

school to deepen our understanding of archaeology and answer some

of the questions we had. David Connelly shared more of the weird

and wonderful objects that had been found by archaeologists during

the archaeological excavation at Bothwell Castle and also helped us

Cosmic Fun in Primary 5-7 This term our topic is 'Space' and we have been

learning about the planets in our solar system

and the relative size of the Sun, Earth and Moon.

We have been working in pairs to research

different planets so that we can make a fact file.

Also, we have been making paper mache models

of each planet - it's a messy job but sometimes

those are the best jobs! A few weeks ago we made

scale paper cut outs of the Sun, Earth and Moon

and we went outside to act out the

relative distance between each. We

didn't realise just how far away the

Sun is, a whopping 150 million kilome-

tres away!

Eco School Committee Litter

Pick Our Eco School Committee have made a good

start to the year by carrying out a litter pick in

the school grounds. They are now preparing

their findings to present at a whole school as-

sembly. Watch this space for further details!

Junior Road Safety Officers

Our JRSOs have recently been trained by

the Police. They are currently organising

our Walk Once a Week campaign. Can you

support this by helping your child to walk or

park and stride to school

at least once a week?

Head Teacher: Gill Whitford

West Barns

Dunbar

East Lothian

EH42 1TZ

Phone: 01368 863209

West Barns Primary School

Follow us at:

http://edubuzz.org/w

estbarns/

Dates for Your Diary

5th December Baldy Bane Xmas Panto

6th December Parent Council set up for Xmas

Fayre (after lunch)

7th December Christmas Fayre

(10.30am-11.30am)

10th December Christmas Nativity (7pm)

16th December Nursery Xmas Party (am & pm)

18th December Primary 1–3 Xmas Party

19th December Primary 4-7 Christmas Party

20th December Christmas Assembly 11am-12am

20th December Finish for Christmas

6th January Back to school!

Reminders for Parent/Carers

Please could you ensure that pupil belongings, especially school

sweatshirts, t-shirts and cardigans are clearly named.

Please could you check the lost property box before the end

of term. We have lots of school sweatshirts that remain un-

claimed.

Can all dinner money be paid weekly (£7.60) or daily (£1.90) in

advance.

Milk money £10.03 is now due for the period of Jan to April

Can you help West Barns?

Could you donate a pair of Wellington

Boots to our Nursery class? They like

to keep a few spare pairs but need

more boots in sizes 7, 8 or 9. They are

also collecting spare

waterproof jackets

and trousers to fit a

child aged 3 or 4.

Many thanks!

Please note…. PE Kit Please could you ensure that all pupils have

a full PE kit at school on a Monday and

Wednesday (Tuesday and Wednesday for

Primary 1). This should consist of a pair

or shorts, leggings or tracksuit bottoms, a

short sleeved t-shirt and a pair of pumps

or trainers. Football shirts or t-shirts

with inappropriate logos or pictures (at the discretion of the school)

should be used as PE kit.

Cycle Safely! Please could parents and carers ensure

that if your child is cycling to school

this winter that

they wear a reflec-

tive jacket and use

cycle lights.

Be Seen

Primary 1 PE We have decided that

on Wednesday mornings

Primary 1 pupils may

come into school at

8.45am to get changed

for PE if they like. Par-

ents can drop their

child off early at the

school office.